Untested Camera Job Lots - Who's Bought One?
I took my first 'plunge' with an untested job lot of cameras last week, the price was too low to resist, £21 inc shipping (circa $28 USD) for six cameras, with a mix of digital and film. The lot was from eBay and while photos were shown, details were sparse.
So how did it work out? well, this is a picture of what I got...
..so clockwise from the top left let's see what they are, if they are working, and roughly what price they are worth (if working).
Kodak Instamatic 200
Circa 1964 to 1968, a classic 126 Koday with a 41mm/f7.1 lens, it's totally non-functional and the rust on the screw heads point to time being stored in a damp location.
Value: Zero
Sony Cybershot DSC-W115
Circa 2008, the W115 is the black-bodied version of the W110, it's in excellent condition, but was missing both a battery and charger, Amazon resolved that problem for £15 for a USB charger and two batteries, and on testing it's both clean and fully functional. The W110/115 runs a 7.2-megapixel CCD sensor and has a 32-122mm f2.8-5.3 equivalent lens, it even still had a 4 GB Memory Stick Pro Duo in it (which fetches around £15 alone on eBay)!
Value: These seem to be selling for around £65 in good condition, and with the Memory card adding around £15 for a total of £80.
Halina 35x
Circa 1959, a solid and weighty (around half a kilo) 35mm viewfinder camera made in Hong Kong, and was styled to look like a rangefinder. It's in reasonable condition and fully functional, fitted with a 45mm f3.5 lens.
Value: These seem to be fetching around £30 on eBay
Dacora Dignar 120
Circa 1956, a 120 roll-film camera made in Germany, typical of the era, fitted with a 75mm f4.5 collapsable lens. It's in very poor condition, with a lot of corrosion and a non-functional shutter.
Value: Zero
Fujifilm Finepix S304
Circa 2003, a bridge camera running a 3.2-megapixel CCD sensor, with a 38-228 equivalent lens, which at f2.8-8.2 is pretty fast at the wide end., running off AA batteries, so no rechargeable to worry about. It's a bit tatty, but is fully functional.
Value: eBay seems to see these running at around the £25 mark.
Fujifilm FinePix S1730
Circa 2010, a 12-megapixel, CCD sensor, 15x optical zoom bridge camera, dual image stabilisation, and a solid reputation. Running AA batteries as with the S304, it powers up, but has a lens connection issue, so it's actually functional, which is damn annoying. This one will be undergoing surgery to see if it can be fixed, as I so wanted this one to work.
Value: Zero
So overall I'm 50% working from the six, with one maybe fixable, however even with 50% strike rate it saved my a good deal of money, as my total outlay was £36 (£21 for the lot and £15 for the Sony batteries/charger), against a rough retail value of £135. I've now got two CCD digital cameras that are well worth a go and a solid (if uninspiring) 35mm viewfinder camera from the '50s to try out.
Overall my first go at an untested camera lot was worth it, both from a monetary and 'new toys' perspective.
That's great. It's fun to do. I've done it before, a couple times. Just be aware, that if you re-sell on ebay. The Fee's are a bit much. I use to sell an item in the past multiple times. I use to get the item for $100 and sell it for $150 . After fee's and shipping materials etc.. I would net like $27. Which is fine if i was moving a bunch but i was selling like 10-15 a month. Just was not worth it. I do still find stuff and re-sell on ebay because it's fun. Enjoy
Phew! I was reading the first bit with a non-working camera in bad condition and thought, oh no, it's gonna bust!
I've taken a shot at a couple these and it's always turned out alright. I've only gone for it if there are items of potentially a lot of value. And multiple. To try and increase my odds of at least one of them working and covering the costs. But it is risky. Can't say it's always a good idea.
And it's hard. The ideal situation is that the seller is throwing them all together and doesn't list model names so there's less competition. Or take bad pictures so it takes a real detective to figure out what's in there (I find those fun). But a lot of these the sellers are smart and go through each item, list model names, take detailed pictures. Less of a treasure hunt xD
Video looking at the six in a bit more detail.
I did it again, I know, but I couldn't help myself. However this time I'm going to do things backwards, running through the cameras and then onto the reveal of how much I paid.
So what do we have here:
Minolta Hi-Matic C (launched 1970)
A lovely condition 35mm zone-focus viewfinder camera, which operates on a 'sort-of' shutter priority mode, you select either cloudy (1/30 sec) or sunny (1/250 second) and it selects the aperture, with a needle indicator in the viewfinder letting you know what's been selected. It has a lovely 40mm f2.7 Rokkor lens that collapses into the body when it's not being used. The problem? Well, the battery holder/cover was missing, however, the spring in the battery compartment holds it firmly in place and some electrical tape over it does the job. Functions perfectly well.
Zenit 3M (1962 to 1970)
A fairly tidey M39 screw mount SLR, and in my view the best-looking camera Zenit ever made, I know that's not a high bar to pass, but it does look lovely. Zero metering so it's fully mechanical, the 1/30 and 1/60 second shutter speeds don't fully close the second curtain, so are unusable, however, 1/125, 1/25, and 1/500 all do, however, I'm far from convinced that they are accurate. None of which comes as any surprise, given that it's a Zenit! The biggest challenge will be a lens, as despite being an M39 mount you can't just slap a rangefinder M39 lens on it, as the shutter-to-lens mount distance is wildly different (circa 17mm), so my Zorki 6 lens acts as if it has an extension tube on it! ZM39 mount lenses (as they are technically called) fetch £100+, so this one is best considered 50% functional to all intents.
Agfa Isola (launched 1955)
A 120 roll-film viewfinder camera, sporting a collapsable 75mm f6.3 lens, with f11 selectable as an option. Three shutter speeds are up for use, with B, 1/30, and 1/100. One nice feature (for a camera of its type) is a double exposure lock, you can't fire the shutter again until you have wound it on, with a red/white indicator letting you know. It's in excellent condition and works perfectly in every way. This one I can't wait to run a film through.
Three 70's/80s Flash Units
A Sunpack auto 28SR, a Metz 181, and a Metz 34 BCT 1. All work and all are solid, well-made flash units representative of the era's they came out in. So no TTL, camera dedicated features, etc. The Sunpack does however have the option to dial the power from full down to 1/32, which is cool.
Minolta SRT101 w Minolta MC Rokkor QD 135mm f3.5 (1966 to 1976)
It's an odd combo, but it is what it is. The SRT101 is in extremely good condition and is a solidly built 35mm SLR, with match-needle metering, and a nice viewfinder, and its CLC metering was a (very) early form of matrix metering. I'm going to enjoy seeing how it goes in a head-to-head with my Canon FTB. The lens is mint and a well-regarded short telephoto good for portraits, etc. They are both fully functional.
Voigtlander Vito CL (1961 to 67)
I've wanted one of these for a long time, they are simply gorgeous-looking cameras, and this one is extremely clean. Fully manual, with match needle metering for the 1/15 to 1/500 Prontor leaf shutter and 50mm f2.8 (22) lens, the meter can be read either from the top plate or from the absurdly big and bright viewfinder. Focusing you will have to manage yourself as it's purely a viewfinder model. It also has three push-on filters, one a standard B+W skylight, however, the other two are Voigtlander FOCAR 1 and FOCAR 2, which are close-up lenses allowing the close focus to shift from 1m down to 22cm, they are both boxed and have the instructions which include the guide tables on how to use them! The shutter is sticky on the 1/15 and 1/30 speeds, but apart from that the camera is clean and working, and just looks so damn cool (I know, but it does).
Minolta AF-Sv (1984)
Also known as the 'Talker', a 35mm autofocus compact camera with a 35mm f2.8 lens, autowind, and a pop-up flash, the ASA range is a very respectable 25 to 1000 (given that Kodak Ektar 25 wouldn't release for another two years). Its main USP however was its voice chip which could tell you that you had forgotten to load film, it was too bright or too dark. That was it, three voice instructions, but that was cutting edge in '84 let me tell you. Unfortunately, while the camera is working perfectly, the separate battery for the voice chip seems to have long since run out and isn't user-changeable (boo).
Canon Ixus Z50 (2000)
We now jump forward a good few decades from the bulk of the cameras and gear to an APS camera, the Z50 has a 26 to 52mm f4.2-6.7 lens and looks mint, it powers up with a battery and looks fully functional, but I have zero interest in buying long expired APS film to give it a go.
Nikon Nuvis 75i (1996)
An early APS camera from Nikon, sporting a 30-60mm, f/4.5-8.5 lens, the rest of my comments from the Z50 above apply.
So overall a solid haul, with all the cameras in good condition and the majority working more than well enough to be used, so how much did this lot cost me?
£46 including postage (from the Netherlands), that's $59, an utter and complete bargain and I can't believe my luck on this one.
Quote from Cory Maben on August 7, 2023, 2:01 amI really like the look of the Minolta AF-Sv I have a soft spot for that 'black. hard lines, red accent' 80's futurism aesthetic. The lot seems like a good deal given what you got out of it. I bet you can more than make your money back by selling just one or two of them.
Agree on the classic '80s look of the AF-Sv, it screams of the era, honestly the SRT101 alone would cover what I paid for this lot, not that any of them are leaving me 🙂
I became interested in these job lots after watching the video that James made for the YouTube channel. Then I had a binge session watching job lot unboxings by Prickly Pear Camera .
https://www.youtube.com/@pricklypearcamera9151/videos
On a visit to my local junk shop ("Reclaim!, Restore! Re-use!!") the proprietor offered a large box of unsorted photographic stuff at a very attractive price ("It's all useless rubbish, mate. Everyone uses a phone these days."). I'm not a gambler by nature but encouraged by the shared experiences on this forum, I took a chance and a deal was done for £20 ($25).
I've now had a chance to sort through my new treasures. A lot of stuff was basically worthless and has now been discarded - broken slide projector cassettes, water damaged copies of Amateur Photographer magazine, nasty (and smelly) unbranded camera cases, bags and straps, the broken stand from a Gnome enlarger, a punctured Rocket blower etc. etc.
The last few days have been spent cleaning up the more interesting items.
Tamron 35-210mm f4.5 lens, P/K mount
The rubber grip rings have disintegrated so I've replaced them with some sticky back Velcro. The end cap was also mssing and I've printed a 3D replacement. Seems fine.
Casio EX-P700, 7Mp and charger.
Like all the other cameras, the Casio had coating of dust, sweat and possibly tobacco smoke. I always use baby wipes to shift this sort of thing. The camera works perfectly and I think is my favourite from the job lot. It's got an amazingly complicated "EX Finder" graphical display on the 2" LCD screen. The camera feels much more modern than it's 2004 date. It's my first Casio since borrowing a QV-10 in 1995. That experience put me off buying a digital camera for the following ten years.
Fuji Finepix A210 3.2 Mp (2003).
Works absolutely fine with two AA batteries installed. Being an earlier Fuji, it needed an XD card and luckily, I have a few lying around.
Fuji Finepix A201 2.0Mp (2001)
It powers up OK with a couple of AA batteries but won't operate until the required SmartMedia card is inserted. I don't have any SmartMedia cards and I'm not prepared to pay the silly prices currently been asked for a 20 year old used example. SM card readers seem to have vanished as well.
Kodak Trimlite Instamatic 18, 110 fim camera, 1975
In perfect working and cosmetic condition (very 1970s brown) but utterly useless apart from as a decoration. It came complete with an Imperial Universal 110 Flash and a carrying pouch. I found the flash more interesting than the camera. It appears that Imperial were based in Chicago and sold many accessories and even cameras. I've never heard about them before.
Kodak DC 4800, 3.1Mp, 28-84mm (2000)
A major disappointment as I've been looking for one of these cameras for ages. They were manufactured for Kodak in Japan (probably by Chinon) and were a quality product full of interesting features, costing around $750 when new. The battery is fine and took a charge without any trouble. It powers on but wants a CF card. This is when I discovered that a couple of the pins deep inside the card compartment had got bent. There are videos around with suggestions for a DIY fix. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.....
Samsung PL18, 12.2 Mp, (2011).
A typical and rather anonymous consumer camera. The purple paintwork seems to be an attempt to introduce some character. I had to find a Samsung specific battery then a Samsung specific data/charging lead before it could be tested. It works OK but with one major issue - a penny sized black disc appearing on the LCD display which makes composing and navigating menus a bit tricky. The photos themselves however are unaffected so thankfully, it's not a sensor issue. Not a keeper and not worth selling, so probably destined to become a toy for the grand children.
Weston Master IV light meter, Model 745. 1960
The Model 745 was a UK only version made at the Enfield factory in north London. This one is in mint condition after being protected for 60 years in a stout leather case. Do I still need a light meter?
Canon Digital Ixus i, 4Mp, fixed lens AKA Canon Powershot SD 10 (2003)
A teeny tiny "fashion" camera. Being so small, it can be a bit tricky to grip and the controls are slightly awkward but I really enjoy using it. Lovely old CCD colours, as well.
Pentax Auto Tele Converter 2X, K mount.
Good condition apart from a missing end cap so I've 3D printed a replacement. Not shown here but also in the job lot was a clean, working Cosina CT7 film SLR. I guess the K mount stuff was used with that?
The £20 spent has already given several hours of simple enjoyment plus the prospect of some photographic fun to come.
I might get addicted to this job lot buying business.
I forgot to add a photo to my earlier "job lot" post. Click on the photo for a larger version.
Uploaded files:
Quote from John Mitchell on August 25, 2023, 2:56 pmI forgot to add a photo to my earlier "job lot" post. Click on the photo for a larger version.
Great haul, I love the old Weston meters, used that so much in the past.
New haul time, seven cameras, and a flash for £12/$15 (not a typo).
Kodak Instamatic 133
This version of the Instamatic dates back to 1968, a very basic model with only the option of two apertures (cloudy/flashcube and sunny). However, unlike the last one I got, this one is not only fully working. but still has film in it! Admittedly film that has likely been in it since the '70s, as it's a cartridge of Trica Colourprint 64ASA, a company that used to re-spool motion picture film back in the 60s/70s in the UK. So this stuff would need a lab that not only processes 126 film but can do it in ECN-2. Oh, and at 50odd years old, that 64ASA is now more like 4 or 2 ASA. I also got the box for it as well.
Canon EOS 500
Dating back to 1993, the EOS 500 is an entry-level 35mm SLR that was, at the time, the smallest 35mm SLR on the market, mainly because it used a mirror rather than a pentaprism. One of the models which fully pre-loaded the film and then fed it back into the film canister as each shot was exposed. Sold as the Rebel XS in the US and Kiss in Japan, the Japanese model had a switchable panorama mode, wich i really wish this European model had. This one is fully working and very, very clean.
Canon Speedlite 220EX
A GN22 flash unit from 1996, these are great units, compact, powerful, and highly compatible. Take a read of Ken Rockwell's review to see just how good, and how compatible they are. This one is again very clean and fully functional.
https://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/flash/220ex.htm#spex
Minolta Vectis 100BF
A 2005 APS camera, this is a budget entry into the APS point-and-shoot world, fully working, but given that it's APS, I will likely never use it.
Boots C35 AF (rebadged Ricoh AF35)
Boots is a UK-based pharmacy, cosmetics, chemists, etc chain. They used to be big into developing and printing when film was the only option, and this rebadged Ricoh dates from then, being a 1990 model. Fitted with a Ricoh 35mm f3.8 lens, DX coding, auto-wind & rewind, these were reasonable spec'd Point-and-shoots. This one, however, has an issue where all it does is try and wind the film on, I suspect a PCB-related issue, making it useless.
Praktica Report Switchable Panorama
Also from 1990, this 35mm point-and-shoot is on the face of it fairly unremarkable, apart from its one trick. It has a switchable panorama mode, marking the viewfinder and film gate off to crop the neg for a faux-panorama. Fixed panorama point-and-shoot cameras of this type were very common at the time (I have one), but a switchable one is uncommon. Fully functional and working.
Kodak Easyshare DX6490
Onto the digital era, we have a 2003 bridge camera from Kodak. With a Schneider-Kreuznach 10x optical zoom covering 38mm to 380mm f2.8 to 3.7, a 4 megapixel CCD sensor, and an ISO range from 80 to 800. Quite the spec for its time. It even provides full PASM options, and unusually for its age runs on a rechargeable Li-ion battery pack, which was included along with the charger. This one is fully functional, with only a little damage to the LCD on the back, but it's perfectly usable. Even came with a 2gig SD card.
Sony Cybershot DSC-P72
Again from 2003, the Sony has a 39mm to 117mm f2.8 3x zoom lens, with a 3.2 megapixel CCD sensor in a compact package. ISO range is seriously limited, with just 100, 200, and 400 on offer; it came with a 16 Mb Memory Stick Pro, capable of holding a massive seven images! Runs on 2 AA batteries and is again fully functional.
So all in I got six working cameras and a working flash for £12/$15, which is a bargain in my book. The EOS 500 (and the flash) and the two digitals are the pick of the bunch for me. The EOS will join my other EF mount bodies (EOS 5 and EOS 5D), and the flash works with all three (and my T90). The Sony and Kodak are a pair of CCD cameras that I'm also looking forward to putting through their paces.
